73 Senators Ask Hedge on Jordan Arms : Compromise Sought to Save Face for Reagan and Hussein

WASHINGTON — Seventy-three Republican and Democratic senators today introduced legislation to bar any sale of U.S. arms to Jordan until the actual beginning of peace talks between Jordan and Israel.

Meanwhile, Senate Republican leaders, striving to head off an embarrassing defeat for both President Reagan and King Hussein, scrambled to draft a compromise that would tie the proposed $1.9-billion sale of arms to Jordan to progress in Middle East peace talks.

The resolution of disapproval, co-sponsored by 29 Republican senators, was introduced by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), who said what is needed in the Middle East is “a peace policy, not a bombs policy.”

Sen. John Heinz (R-Pa.), a principal GOP co-sponsor of the disapproval resolution, praised Jordan’s King Hussein for his repeated recent statements expressing willingness to enter the peace process but said they are not enough to sway the Senate.

“What we want is not statements or declarations of intent; what we want is performance,” Heinz said.

Not Enough for Cranston

Sen. Alan Cranston (D-Calif.) said that for him, merely entering into negotiations would not be enough to win his approval of the sale of $1.9 billion in advanced U.S. weapons for Jordan because such talks could drag on for years.

“Simply sitting down and talking to me would not be enough,” Cranston said, adding that his precondition for the sale is a Jordanian-Israeli peace treaty.

Republican congressional leaders met with Reagan at the White House today and warned him that the U.S. arms sale to Jordan faces almost certain defeat on Capitol Hill.

After the hourlong meeting, House Republican leader Robert H. Michel of Illinois told reporters the arms package faces “no possibility whatsoever” of being approved by the House.

His Senate counterpart, Bob Dole of Kansas, called the proposed arms sale “a bit premature” and conceded that he did not know whether even he could support the move at the present time.

Reagan Still Committed

However, White House spokesman Larry Speakes said Reagan told the GOP leaders that he remains “fully committed” to the sale as an inducement for Jordan’s King Hussein to pursue direct negotiations with Israel.

Despite the recent Israeli attack on Palestine Liberation Organization headquarters in Tunis and the hijacking of the Achille Lauro by Palestinian gunmen, Speakes said Reagan told the lawmakers, “We continue to believe that the opportunity for peace is still there and it must be exploited before it slips from our grasp.”

As the White House played down any prospect that Reagan would agree to attach conditions to the arms sale, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.) said the President appears to pin his hopes for its approval on “the thought that there might be some movement” in the peace process “in the next few days.”

Reagan’s hopes, Speakes said, were based on recent expressions by Hussein and Israeli Shimon Peres of an intention to move toward direct peace talks, although the process leading up to that ultimate goal remains a matter of disagreement.